SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Susan Baines was sitting at her computer at home, quietly doing some online banking, when everything went black Friday.

Friends Sheena Sangris, left, and Susan Baines left their homes and got out for a walk while the power was out on Friday, Dec. 10. - Kira Curtis/NNSL photo

"I hope the transaction went through," she laughs. Baines grew up here and says she's used to power outages, even if they're annoying. She only has electric heat in her home, so she decided to bundle up and head out.

But that was nothing compared to the mess Steve Outlet came home to after his Trail's End dwelling was without electricity for two and a half hours. His pipes froze and burst, something he's never had happen before, and something he knows his neighbours have to deal with too.

"It'll cost me about $600 to $700 by the time I'm done," Outlet says.

Outlet knows those are the risks run when living in the an extreme climate but he's wondering why the power took so long to kick back in.

Outlet says he understood the diesel generators at the Jackfish Lake power plant could kick in within minutes as a backup to prevent these situations from happening. So he wants to know why.

"I wish they would put some policy into place to not leave it that long," he says. "Usually the power people are really, really good. Usually the power's not out that long."

Mike Bradshaw, a spokesperson for Northwest Territories Power Corporation agrees that it's very unusual for it to take so long to get the power up and running, but a series of unfortunate events struck that day.

A fault at the Bluefish hydro plant caused the blackout, so the diesel engines at Jackfish were fired up. Then a fault at the diesel plant lead to a crash at the Snare Rapids hydro plant that threw a wrench in the usual contingency plans.

"Four or five unrelated things had to go wrong at the same time for us to be out that long." Bradshaw says. "We dispatched people by air to Snare Rapids immediately."

"(NTPC does) maintenance and checks all the time," Bradshaw says, "but a piece of equipment chose that moment and time to fail."

Because of the lengthy outage, Ron Portas with Pick's Steam has been run off his feet.

"By the time the power came on, we had about 30 calls by the end of Friday." He says.

Portas says they've been swamped with calls ever since, and it hadn't let up by Monday. He's been working until 10 p.m. every night but can still only get to about eight or nine households a day.

"You're looking at two to three hours each residence." Portas says it will cost anywhere from $300 to $500 for people to get their pipes thawed, and that's not if the pipes have busted.

Outlet and his wife would love it if they were compensated by either Power Corp. or Northland Utilities, but their not holding their breath.

Downtown the damage was minor but annoying. The blackout caused short term inconveniences, and as the busy Friday lunch hour was beginning, it couldn't have come at a worse time for restaurants.

"It threw a wrench in (lunch service)," says Brad Morrissey, manager of Le Frolic Bistro Bar. He and his staff had to shut down service for almost two hours.

And even once the power flickered back on, it was still slow going. At nearly -40 C, that long without heating pads on the propane tanks and the gas jells. But Morrissey said they were able to keep up with the flood of hungry, delayed lunch patrons that filed in once the power was restored.

Up the street though, cold food rolled out of Sushi North. Owner Sage Suziki says they couldn't use the stoves and he turned away about 15 to 20 people looking for hot teriyaki meals, but had enough rice pre-made to keep feeding people fresh rolls. By the end, the rice was dwindling and it was a mad dash to get more made before the next wave of orders came in.

Other annoyances for downtown business included a fire system malfunction in the Scotia Centre that set off a false alarm and forced workers outside into the biting cold.

Craig MacLean, deputy fire chief of operations with the city's fire department, said it was possible the false alarm was triggered when the power came back on, but firefighters quickly reset the system and people were let back in before too long.

Inconvenient, but an adaptability most Yellowknifers seem to be.

"I guess you just grab a good book and grab a couple of blankets," Baines says, smiling.

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